LETTER XLVI.

ARGOS.

My dear Sir,

IN order to form an adequate
idea of the miseries which were brought upon the Greeks by continual and
innumerable revolutions of government, it should be considered, that the whole
Peloponnesus was scarcely two hundred miles in length, and one hundred and
forty in breadth, not much more extensive than the smallest of the Thirteen
States of America. Such an inherent force of repulsion, such a disposition to
fly to pieces, as possessed the minds of the Greeks, would divide America into
thousands of petty despicable states, and lay a certain foundation for
irreconcilable wars.

Although Thucydides and Aristotle, as well as Homer, inform us, that
kingdoms were hereditary, and of limited authority, yet the limitations appear
to be very confused; they were the limitations of nobles rather than of people;
and the first struggles for power were between kings and archons. The kings had
no standing armies; and all the forces under their authority, even when they
took the field, could be commanded only by the nobles, who had their peculiar
districts of land and people to govern: these were illustrious and independent
citizens; like the barons who demanded the great charter, communicated to each
other their grievances, and took measures to remove them: but, being generally
as averse to popular as to regal power, their constant aim was an aristocracy;
they accordingly extinguished monarchy, but did not secure the rights of the
people. The immediate effect of this revolution only multiplied evils.
Oppressed by kings, Greece was much more oppressed by archons; and, anciently
too much divided, was still more subdivided under the new forms of government.
Many inferior cities disdained the jurisdiction, and even the superior
influence, of their respective capitals; affected independent sovereignty; and
each town maintained war with its neighbours. Each independent state had a
right to send two members to the Amphictyonic council. The abolition of royalty
rendering the independent states more numerous, increased the number of
Amphictyons to one hundred members, and more; and an oath was required, that
the member should never subvert any Amphictyonic city: yet every excess of
animosity prevailed among the Grecian republics, notwithstanding the
interposition of the Amphictyons.

Argos was founded by Danaus, the Egyptian, about the time that Athens was
settled by Cecrops. At the Trojan war it was the first of the states, and ever
continued the rival of Sparta. Though the royal dignity seemed more firmly
settled under Agamemnon than under any other chief, yet Argos was one of the
first of the states upon the continent to abolish monarchy, and that as early
as on the death of Celsus, son of Temenus, the descendant of Hercules. No
account of its new constitution is preserved: but, from analogy, we may be
convinced, that a restless body of nobles overturned the monarchy; and, as it
was subject to frequent and violent disorders, that the archons could not agree
upon the form of their oligarchy; and let up for independency in their
different districts, states, or cities, a little sooner than in other
republics. The higher and lower ranks were continually at variance; the
democratical faction was commonly superior; sometimes tyrants were set up over
all; and once, according to Herodotus,* the slaves got
possession of the city, took upon them the administration of affairs, and
exercised the magistracies.

The government must have been ill constituted, as no Rhadamanthus or Minos,
no Lycurgus or Solon, no Zaleucus or Charondas, nor any other legislator of
superior wisdom and probity, ever acquired the power; and no fortunate
coincidence of circumstances ever occurred, to unite liberty and
administration, law and government, upon a stable basis. One famous tyrant,
Pheidon, lineal successor of Hercules, a prince of great abilities but no
moderation, raised himself, rather than his country, to a superiority which
ceased with him. For want of distinct orders, and steady balances, by which the
wills and the forces of the people might have been subjected to the laws, Argos
lost that pre-eminence among the Grecian states, which it had obtained under a
monarchy. Every little town in Argolis was seized with the caprice of
independence, and opposed the general government, at the same time that the
metropolis betrayed an ambition to domineer over the inferior towns. Civil wars
ensued: MycenŠ, Troezene, Epidaurus, and other villages of less
consequence, were often conquered and garrisoned, but never subdued. Necessity
taught them to unite. They reproached Argos with tyranny, and Argos the others
with rebellion. Union enabled them to set at defiance their capital, by means
of intrigues and alliances with LacedŠmon, the neverfailing resource of
one party or the other in every democratical state. The pretence was, the
Persian war, which Argos declined. This was called a base dereliction, and
excited, by the help of Spartan emissaries, hatred and contempt in Sicyon,
Naupila, HeliŠa, and other towns, besides those mentioned before. Argos
alone, of all the cities in the Peloponnesus, openly espoused the cause of
Athens. This circumstance alone, if it was not accidental, is enough to show,
that this city had more sense and profound wisdom than all the rest; for Sparta
was certainly then leading all Greece to destruction. In other respects the
Argives discovered the same temper, and the same understanding, with all the
others; for they led their whole forces against MycenŠ, took it by storm,
decimated the inhabitants, and demolished the town. Is it not sublime wisdom,
to rush headlong into all the distractions and divisions, all the
assassinations and massacres, all the seditions, rebellions, and eternal
revolutions, which are the certain consequence of the want of orders and
balances, merely for the sake of the popular caprice of having every fifty
families governed by all authority in one centre? Even this would not satisfy;
the fifty families would soon dissolve their union, and nothing would ever
content them short of the complete individual independence of the Mohawks; for
it may be depended on, that individual independence is what every unthinking
human heart aims at nearly or remotely.